Prieur’s readings (December 27, 2009)

This post provides links to a number of interesting articles I have read over the past few days that you may also enjoy.

• John Embry (via GATA): Gold bull has years and thousands of dollars to go, December 24, 2009.
Sprott Asset Management’s chief investment strategist, John Embry, explains in detail in the new issue of Investor’s Digest of Canada why gold is not in a bubble, why today’s gold price suppression by central banks is many times greater than it was in the 1970s, and how declining production has made gold a fantastic supply/demand imbalance investment.

• Allen Sykora (The Wall Street Journal): Metals-linked ETFs closer to reality, December 26, 2009.
Regulators took another step toward smoothing the way for exchange-traded funds linked to the metals to trade in the US – news that sent platinum and palladium prices to three-week highs on Thursday.

• Kevin Depew (Minyanville): Is the bull market back? December 24, 2009.
A look at four scenarios for the fourth quarter and what it may mean for 2010.

• Allen Sykora (The Wall Street Journal): Metals-linked ETFs closer to reality, December 26, 2009.
Regulators took another step toward smoothing the way for exchange-traded funds linked to the metals to trade in the US – news that sent platinum and palladium prices to three-week highs on Thursday.

• Liam Halligan (Telegraph): We are at risk of a trade war – and the West has most to lose, December 26, 2009.
It was in December 1999 that a landmark World Trade Organisation (WTO) summit collapsed amidst mutual recrimination, finger-pointing and, ultimately, street violence on the north-west coast of America. Since Seattle, two asset bubbles have burst, the world has twice plunged into recession and, following “sub-prime”, global trade flows have suffered their sharpest drop since the 1930s. The global economy now badly needs an over-arching “trade round” – a worldwide deal to boost international commerce, while keeping protectionism in check.

• Zach Carter (The Nation): A master of disaster, January 2010.
Of all the architects of last year’s financial crash, John Dugan remains the most obscure, despite his stature as one of the most influential. While regulatory errors have made Larry Summers, Robert Rubin and Alan Greenspan household names, most people have never heard either of Dugan or his agency, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency. But as the chief regulator for the largest US banks, Dugan and his staff are one of the most powerful engines of economic policy in the world.